Golf club



H. l. JoRDAN GOILF CLUB Dec. 29 1925- v Original Filed OC'. 19, 1921muumn muli llllllllllllll ||||||ll H? www Jorunm by 45'. M wf f CFIPatented 29, 1925.

1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.'

HARRY I. JORDAN, 0F AUBURN, MAINE, ASSIGNOB T0 LAMINO MANUFACTURING ICOMPANY, .L CORPORATION O F MASSACHUSETTS. y

ciomal eLUB.

' A'ppneatiqn nl ed octoberA 19, 1921, serial No. soavonaenewea maroni14, 1925.

To whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, HARRY I. donnais, a citizen of the United States,residing at Auburn, in the county of Androscoggin and Statevof Maine,have invented certain new and useful Improvements iny Golf Clubs, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the construction of wooden 'golf club heads fordrivers, brasseys, spoons and the like.

The object of the invention is to construct such a head of fabricated orlaminated wood so formedl and arranged as to givea very hard andnon-elastic playing surface.

The ldriver as commonly made o comf pressed hickory is so cut that thegrain of the wood runs parallel with the face of the club and in the`general direction of the shaft.

Thus, as the club is used, pieces of the Wood in the form of splinterstend to form' on the face and become loosened finally 'ruining theplaying face.

It has been'found that aiwooden club having a hard non-elastic drivingface has a marked effect in increasing the driving distance of the club.It has thus cometo be a practice to insert into the face of the driversections of hard material like ivory or wooden pins, with their endsflush with the driving face of the club. Such hard filon-elastic facesresist any tendency to yield under the' impact of the ball and thelatter thus springs away'l from the club with the .full force ofvitsrebound. I have produced such a club head of fabricated or laminatedwood commonly called ply-wood, by subjecting the material in process ofmaking to high pressure. This pressure amounting in practice to 1500lbs. per

A square inch being applied at right angles` to the'hlayers of wood,these latter are very greatly compressed and solidified. In making up myclub head, the layers of wood are .arranged with their -lateral edges inthe playing face of the club and' preferably so -that the grain in-halfwill be at right angles to the face and half' parallel to it. Thus, theimpact of the ball will come against these compacted edges.

The grain of alternate layers being at right anglesto each other, theplaying face is thus made up of alternate strips in which the end of theother strips having the grain parallel with ain is in this surface and-of ig. 1, Fig. 3 is a side elcvationof a modilied the surface.'

Byarranging the plies or Y.

layers as I have describedfhalf of the playv vface impossible tocompress by any impact with the ball and a surface which will always'remai'n integral.

. I hajve illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawing in which:

-F ig. 1 is a side elevation of a wooden club head constructed accordingto my invention with the pieces arranged in. the preferable form,

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 1-1 form showing another manner theplies,

Fig. 4' is an end view, of a pair of plies showing the mannerin whichthe grain of 4the wood crosses at right angles,

Fig. 5 is a cross section on Fig.A 6 and,

Fig. 6 is a side View of a onev piece clubl of ,arranging with aconnecting joint between the head Y and the shaft. In thedrawing,.similar letters indicate similar' parts.

In the drawing, referring to Figs. 1 to 4, 1 Ais the playing `face ofthe club, 2 is the socket, 3 is the sole and 4 is the weight. The clubis Iliade up of the plies 5.

In making up the club head, the plies are madeof veneer strips of ma leor any other strong hard wood suitable or the purpose. They are thenformed up in stocks of about three inches thickness, the grain of eachply crossing the grain of the two adjacent plies at right angles.

The surface of each ply isthen coated with a special water-proof glueand the Whole body is then subJected to a very high pressure at rightangles to the plies. This pressure valiounts to 1500 to 2000 lbs. per

square inchand the result is a very hardthis material by any Well knownprocess.

This arrangement on the kplaying face pro- I on the .side of the grainand will project vzo farther than the -other strip. Such a corrugatedsurface tends to get a better holding effect on the ball and hooking.

In cutting out the head, it is so arranged that preferably the plieslare atsubstantially right angles tothe playing face of the club prevents.slicing and und lie in the general direction of the shaft."

By this Aarrangement the plies exten-d length- Wise of the socket andgive it' the greatest possible strength While the exposed edges of theplies. terminate in the playing face of the head giving a hard,iniexible surface, a playing face practically impossibleto chip orsplinter and a material which can be cheaply madeof low priced Wood.

IGrood hickory such as heads have hitherto been made of is becoming veryscarce and the demand for golf clubs is .increasing rapidly.

Thus, a vcheap fabricated material which Will do the Work as Well orbeter than hickory is of considerable value. v

In F ig. 4, I have shown a modified construction in which the pliesare'arranged vertically and at right angles to the playing face of theclub. This arrangement While giving the same hard playing face does notgive quite as much strength at the socket.

In Figs. 5 and 6, I have shown a one piece club inwhich the same plieswhich constitute the head are continued to form the shaft, the pliesbeing arranged as. I have pointed out, namely, With the pliessubstantially at right angles to the playing face of l l the head.

Such a one piece clubhas long been desired because the absence of ajoint Where the head joinsthe shaft leaves that portion of the shaftwith a perfect spring action and quickly follows the rebound of the balland adding its .resiliency to the rebounding effect of the expandingball. The spring of the shaft is edgewise of the plies but thecomposition of the body of the shaft is so homogeneous that thedirection of the plies hisflitle or no effect on the resiliency of the sa t.

It is evident that the plies may be ar- .each other or they may bearranged so that the grain in adjacent strips will be substantiallyparallel. Different characteristics of the head Will result from thevarious arrangements of the plies with respect to the direction of thegrain of the wood.

.If the plies of the veneer are arranged with thegrain of adjacentstrips crossing each other at right angles andthe edges of the headterminating in the playing face of the clubv the resulting face willgivealternate strips with the grain terminating in one strip and they grainparallel with the.-

face inthe adjacent strip so that the face will be.A provided withalternate hard `and relatively soft strips.

Thus,iwhen the face of the club begins to Wear a roughened surface withalternate hard and relatively soft strips such a `face will take firmerhold on the ball than a perfectly smooth face Where all the layers wereofthe same degree of hardness.

1. A. golf club head having its playing face on one side, composed ofWood veneer strips cemented and pressed together, a portion of ,saidstri s having their edges .terminate in the said playing face of theclub and having the grain of the wood also terminate in the said playingface.

2. A golf club head having 'its playing face on one side, composed ofWood veener strips cemented and pressed together, a portionof saidstrips having their edges termiu 'playing face, the grain of allalternate strips y crossing each other.

- HARRY I. JORDAN.

